About Giorgos's Work
Dr. Giorgos Mountrakis is a Professor in Environmental Resources Engineering at the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Maine in Spatial Information Engineering and Science (2004). He is the Founder of the Intelligent Geocomputing Laboratory at SUNY-ESF. His areas of expertise include:
i) environmental monitoring using Earth Observation/Remote Sensing methods (algorithmic development for classification/regression, for three-dimensional LiDAR processing, for accuracy assessment and for image fusion),
ii) interdisciplinary studies linking land cover dynamics, socioeconomic patterns and environmental covariates (climate pattern analysis, forest consolidation dynamics, biodiversity responses to climate/land cover changes, tornado prediction, urban growth modeling).
Dr. Mountrakis has been successful at securing external competitive grants from NASA, NSF, USDA Forest Service, USAID and Syracuse Center of Excellence. He has been the lead PI for approximately $2.3M in research funds, through individual and collaborative grants ($2.7M including Co-PI status). He has published in numerous journals and books and has presented his work in various national and international conferences. He is the recipient of several awards including SUNY ESF’s Exemplary Researcher Award (2015), NASA’s New Investigator Award (2008), ISPRS Excellent Reviewer Award (2012) and a Postdoctoral Fellowship from the National Academy of Sciences (2004).
His teaching is innovative through student-engaging activities (e.g. incorporating inquiry-based learning) and it includes courses in Digital Image Analysis, Spatial Statistics, Earth Observation/Remote Sensing, Surveying, GPS and Artificial Intelligence in Geography. Notable service activities include being an Associate Editor for the ISPRS journal, chairing an ASPRS National Committee on Academic Engagement, Guest Editorship in the October 2008 Special Issue on “Artificial Intelligence in Earth Observation/Remote Sensing” for the Photogrammetric Eng. & Earth Observation/Remote Sensing Journal, and his involvement in a United Nations FAO Thematic Study on Trees Outside the Forest. In 2012 he was a Keynote Speaker at the 32nd EARSEL Symposium.